Bowling Green Falls to Rome 8-5 on Wednesday
Bowling Green, Kentucky – The Bowling Green Hot Rods (9-2) dropped their first game of the season at home as the Rome Braves (7-4) fought off a late Hot Rods comeback attempt in an 8-5 victory. The two teams will continue their series on Thursday with a 6:35 PM CT first pitch.
Rome started the scoring in the second with an RBI double from Christian Robinson, but exploded in the third with a streak of six-straight baserunners that sent four runners home and made it 5-0 by inning’s end. Drew Campbell and Beau Phillip provided RBI doubles before Phillip was thrown out at home by Hot Rods leftfielder Garrett Hiott to end the inning.
After two more Braves runs in the top of the fourth, the Hot Rods struck back when Hiott became Bowling Green’s first baserunner on a one-out single up the middle. After Hiott was forced out at second and Diego Infante reached on a fielder’s choice, a two-out rally began for Bowling Green. Heriberto Hernandez drove Infante in with a double down the left field line that opened up the scoring for Bowling Green, and Oslevis Basabe promptly sent Hernandez home on a single to left four pitches later.
Logan Driscoll responded to a seventh inning home run by Phillip with a solo shot of his own when he launched a no-doubter over the right-centerfield wall to make it an 8-3 ballgame. A hard line drive over the leftfield wall from Hernandez added two more runs, cutting the deficit to 8-5 in the eighth.
The Hot Rods had a chance in the ninth, loading the bases with two outs and bringing the winning run to the plate, but Braves’ closer Justin Yeager shut the door, striking out Hiott on three pitches to earn the save and cement Rome’s 8-5 win.
Seth Johnson (0-1) got the loss for Bowling Green, allowing three earned runs on three hits with two walks and four strikeouts over 2.2 innings of work. Jack Snyder allowed four more on seven hits with one strikeout in 2.1 innings. Sean Mullen threw another 2.2 frames, striking out three and allowing one earned run. Graeme Stinson finished off the game with a strikeout and a walk in a scoreless 1.1 innings for Bowling Green.
